Top 13 Best Books About Philosophy Updated 04 /2024

You can do a lot of things to improve your mindset, but reading philosophy books is the best way to do it. The best minds in the world ask questions in these books, and they go very deep into thought.

While there isn't always a clear answer to all of the questions in philosophy, the whole field is a way to get a better sense of who you are. It makes you think about all kinds of things.

Below, we talk about some of the most important philosophy books that are good for people who are just starting out or want to learn more.

Meditations

Meditations is one of the things that you'll see on a lot of these lists, and for good reason. It's the only one of its kind that has ever been made. Private thoughts of the world's most powerful man are the focus of this book. He tells himself that he should make good on his responsibilities and the obligations that come with his position.

He was trained in stoic philosophy and did spirituality exercises every night. We know this because we know enough about Marcus Aurelius. In these exercises, he was made to be humble and patient and empathetic as well as generous and strong when he had to deal with whatever problem he had to face off with. With that in mind, there were many things that went wrong for him. He was almost like an Emperor for a third of the planet.

All of that is in this book, and you're bound to remember a line or two that will be useful in your life. In philosophy books, it's a must-have.

Letters From a Stoic

Marcus Aurelius was also a powerful person in Rome. Seneca was also a powerful person. During that time, he was a great writer and he was the kind of person who gave great advice to the people he cared about most. As a good thing, most of his advice comes in letters, and those letters happen to be in this book, too. The letters themselves gave advice on how to deal with grief, money, poverty, success, failure, education, and more.

It doesn't matter what kind of person Seneca was. He is more practical and uses advice from other schools of thought. It doesn't matter who wrote the line if it's good. Meditations has a lot of great lines and advice that are still relevant today, just like there are in Meditations.

Nicomachean Ethics

Aristotle was a well-known Greek philosopher at the time with a lot of knowledge. When you name him, you're also giving him the name of a type of logic called Aristotelian logic. He talks about the root of all Aristotelian ethics in this book. To put it another way, this book has a lot of moral ideas that are important in western culture.

Beyond Good & Evil

Friedrich Nietzsche played a big role in the world of philosophy. This is what people say. When he wrote this book, it all came together. He was one of the most important philosophers of the existential movement. He has a great mind. Because a lot of his work is written in German, it's not very good.

Fortunately, this book is one of the easier ones to read because it's been written down. Throughout the book, he explains how morality isn't always what we think it is. People who thought about things in the 20th century after this set the stage for a lot of it.

Meditations on First Philosophy

This book by René Descartes is broken up into six meditations. The book is written in a way that looks a lot like a six-day course of meditation. On the first day, he tells you to stop believing in things that aren't sure. He then tries to figure out what can be known for sure. Meditations is a well-known and important philosophical text that you can read.

Ethics

He wrote it during the Age of Enlightenment. Enlightenment was a movement that took over the world of ideas in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. This led to many different schools of thought that were written about in books.

Ethics was the most important philosophy book that was written back then because it talked about the foundations of rationalism. Even though we've come a long way, Ethics can still show us new ways of thinking from this one school of thought.

Critique of Pure Reason

One of the best philosophers in history, Immanuel Kant, combined two of the most important schools of thought in history into a single book. These two schools of thought are rational thought and empirical experiential knowledge, which is knowledge that comes from experience.

When Kant writes Critique of Pure Reason, he first looks at human reasoning. Then he tries to figure out what human reasoning is like and get down to its core parts. All in all, you can learn more about human behavior and thought processes, which will help you think more about how you think and process everything that happens to you and the world around you.

On the Genealogy of Morals

The On the Genealogy of Morals is another piece of work that we can read. According to Nietzsche, the main goal of this book is to draw attention to his previous work. If you don't want to read his other books, this one does more than that.

In this book, he expands on the cryptic aphorisms that he brought up in Beyond Good and Evil. He also talks about morality in a work that is easier to read than some of his other work.

Everything Is F*cked

It's the only book on this list that hasn't been written in the last few years. Mark Manson's book explains why we all need hope while also acknowledging that hope can often lead us to ruin, too.

It's not like even the best philosophers could have predicted things like technology, Twitter, and how our world has changed. This book is the most realistic because even the best could not have foreseen things like this.

Manson has written a book that is very thought-provoking. It talks about Plato, Nietzsche, and Tom Waits, as well as religion, politics, money, entertainment, and the internet. It also talks about how all of these things are connected.

If we want to be more honest with ourselves and connect with the world in new ways, this book is for us.

Reasons and Persons

Reasons and Persons is one of the hardest philosophy books to read on this list. It will take you on a long journey through the world of ideas. Some new ideas about self-interest, being a person, and whether our actions are good or bad are shown by Derek Parfit through a lot of hard work.

One of the 20th century's best psychological texts, this book will help you think about things in a new way.

The Republic of Plato

This book was written by Plato and is the first book of political science. It is also a brilliant critique of government. As you would expect, the critique is still very important today, even though it has changed. If you want to learn more about Plato's thoughts, this is one of the best books to read.

Final Thoughts

Philosophy books take a long time to read because they give you a lot of information and leave you with a lot of questions. Take your time with many of these philosophy books, and you might have to read through them several times. So, with each read, your mind will get bigger.

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